On Thu, 2006-08-24 at 19:11 +0200, Daniel Borgmann wrote: > Hello, > > On 8/22/06, Calum Benson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > To be honest, I'm also not clear what 'spatial' means for other > > applications anyway. E.g. Daniel Borgmann writes about your scratchpad > > example: > > > > In true spatial philosophy, it is not possible to create a new > > document from inside a scratchpad window, instead you will have > > to create a new document using your file manager and then open > > it. > > > > which I'd say, in itself at least, isn't much to do with spatial UIs > > (and as an aside, it would probably drive me mad!) Without having used > > it, it sounds to me more like it's just a document-driven rather than an > > application-driven UI, which always sounds like a great idea until you > > try to design a whole desktop around it :) > > What spatial means to me can basically be summed up as "object > oriented". It means that each window of the application represents a > unique object with persistent (spatial-) state. This can be an > application object, a document object, a project object or something > else. The current release of Scratchpad is purely document oriented > indeed, for the next release (and this was my initial plan as well), > I'm working on the project oriented interface which will be used when > Scratchpad is launched independently. I have written some details > about it[1] on my blog and would very much like to hear usability > related critique about this plan.
sounds interesting. waiting for release :P > > The reason why I don't allow new documents from within a document > window is more related to the spatial interface than part of it. The > point is that it's not possible to have a direct window<->object > mapping, when the object doesn't even exist yet. I could offer a new > document interface that would require the name and location of the > document beforehand, but that appeared like a rather crude method to > me compared to using the file manager directly. Scratchpad has an > "Open Folder" option to access the document's folder, so it flows > nicely. I doubt that it would drive you mad. :-) > > In general, I don't think spatial interfaces are the right choice for > every application yet (my chess viewer doesn't use a spatial interface agreed. > for example), but I strongly believe that it (or rather object > orientation in general) is a worthwhile idea to pursue, mainly because > it makes interfaces more consistent and their behaviour more reliable. > It's just important to remember that object orientation doesn't have > to mean document orientation and that a document UI isn't always the > best choice. Then maybe most of the obligatory flaming about this > topic could be avoided. i was reading through http://live.gnome.org/ThreePointZero hence, a flicker of idea with regard to data oriented desktop. on a side-note, what i understood is people care about there documents/data and not about which application they use. > > Daniel > > [1] http://dborg.wordpress.com/2006/03/25/what-the-f-is-scratchpad/ -- Ritesh Khadgaray LinuX N Stuff Ph: +919822394463 Eat Right, Exercise, Die Anyway. _______________________________________________ Usability mailing list [email protected] http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/usability
